Extended amygdala-parabrachial circuits alter threat assessment and regulate feeding

Abstract

An animal’s evolutionary success depends on the ability to seek and consume foods while avoiding environmental threats. However, how evolutionarily conserved threat detection circuits modulate feeding is unknown. In mammals, feeding and threat assessment are strongly influenced by the parabrachial nucleus (PBN), a structure that responds to threats and inhibits feeding. Here, we report that the PBN receives dense inputs from two discrete neuronal populations in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), an extended amygdala structure that encodes affective information. Using a series of complementary approaches, we identify opposing BNST-PBN circuits that modulate neuropeptide-expressing PBN neurons to control feeding and affective states. These previously unrecognized neural circuits thus serve as potential nodes of neural circuitry critical for the integration of threat information with the intrinsic drive to feed.

Type of self‐talk matters: Its effects on perceived exertion, cardiorespiratory, and cortisol responses during an iso‐metabolic endurance exercise

“…The response to threat is also strongly influenced by the extended amygdala‐parabrachial circuit (Luskin et al, 2021), a structure that functions as a respiratory pacemaker (Felten et al, 2016). The stimulation of the amygdala produces a rapid increase in respiratory rate unrelated to changes in metabolic demand (Homma & Masaoka, 2008; Masaoka & Homma, 2001).…”

Refocusing Neuroscience: Moving Away from Mental Categories and Toward Complex Behaviors

“…Instead, it is useful to consider a broad family of cooperative-competitive mechanisms that emerged philogenetically and that support gradually more sophisticated behaviors (Cisek, 2019 makes a related point in the context of "decision making"). Such concepualization encompasses, for example, circuits involving the extended amygdala and parabrachial nucleus that are relevant for the integration of threat information and feeding behavior (Luskin et al, 2021).…”

“…Importantly, the superior colliculus has the potential to become embedded into large-scale circuits in several ways. The superior colliculus is part of loops with the subcortex via the thalamus and the basal ganglia (for review, see McHaffie et al, 2005) (Figure 5B).…”

Disruption of synaptic transmission in the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis reduces seizure-induced death in DBA/1 mice and alters brainstem E/I balance

“…We chose to investigate the lPBN and the lPAG as they both receive dense input from the extended amygdala, are involved in respiratory control, and have been shown to be activated by S-IRA induced death in DBA/1 mice (Kommajosyula et al 2017;Faull et al 2019;Holstege et al 1985;Luskin et al 2021;Dutschmann and Herbert 2006). To elucidate if dBNST inactivation altered E/I balance in these brainstem neurons, we recorded sEPSCs and sIPSCs in both the lPBN and lPAG neurons from control (n=6 animals for both lPBN and lPAG recordings) and AAV-TeNT (n=3 and 5 animals for lPBN and lPAG recordings, respectively) animals.…”

“…In general, these effects were more pronounced in the lPBN where we observed significantly reduced sEPSC amplitudes, suggesting that disruption of dBNST input is producing postsynaptic changes in these neurons. The dBNST has both excitatory and inhibitory projections to the lPBN (Luskin et al 2021), so these reductions in sEPSC amplitudes could be due to a loss of the excitatory projection and/or compensatory change for loss of the inhibitory input. The heterogeneous nature of BNST neurons, the relative variability in targeting, and the time for compensatory changes to develop likely contribute to the overall subtle effects.…”